Browser Showdown

Following up on my previous Safari post, I noticed that Ryan had compared the screen real-estate used by the two browsers.

I'm liking Safari a bit more as I use it again, but they still need to fix the font display and some windowing usability before I can test drive it on a daily basis.

Pointing out once again the flexibility of Firefox though, I thought I would post how the 2 browsers compare on my system:

Software and the idiots who use it

I needed something to get me fired up (many of you will find that hard to believe). This will definitely do it.

As many know, Apple released a version of their Safari web browser for Windows yesterday at their WWDC developer conference. An unexpected move for many, including myself, and one that spawned a good amount of discussion and pondering.

Don't confuse pondering with pandering though, which is what many in the tech community love to do so much. The bits had barely hit the web before people were trashing the release. I'll admit, I tried it immediately, and was less than impressed with the usability and visual aspects of this particular build. Guess what? It's beta. Should this be a surprise? So, rather than bitch continuously, I simply closed it and will wait for a later version to do additional evaluation. After all, Apple actually still uses beta to mean pre-release, not perpetual unwillingness to claim completion like other companies.

The worst of these were some of the security exploits supposedly found, as covered by Slashdot. The first of these idiots is the guy who supposedly had found a bug in Apple's Airport, only to be smacked down later. He claims he found a bunch of holes, but he will not be disclosing them to Apple. Fantastic, great plan. Run around, spouting off about how great you are and poking holes in software, rather than attempting to improve something. Specifically, a beta, which is released entirely to attempt to find issues and get them fixed before release. These people need to have their Internet pass revoked.


Personally, I want to see Safari not only succeed, but excel. Mostly, because I want some competition to push my favorite browser, Firefox, a little harder. At this point, I really don't see myself ever moving to Safari. I like some of its features, but I have nearly all of them already courtesy of extensions. Extensions are still the silver bullet of Firefox for me. Also, I find Firefox to still run very snappy, and I have his memory in check on my machine. I look forward to some friendly competition between the two to keep improving them both.

Cornocopia

Today is the day to dive into new, untested waters, and I'm throwing it all into one post.

This is my first post using the new, integrated blogger stuff. I switched my account over to the new beta site today. It's not quite perfect yet, and you'll notice a few things are missing on the blog front right now, but I have been pushing them to do this for so long I thought it would be hypocritical not to use it immediately.

I like it all for the most part. There is still a bit too much original Blogger lingering around, that I want to see eradicated by Google. I really like that I now simply use a Google account, there is no longer a separate Blogger account. The new template stuff is really nice, it borrows the nice aspects of Google Pages, but I still find it pretty extensible. Could use some more work still, but very much a step in the right direction.

I really like that they added label support for posts. I had some 3rd party label stuff I was going to integrate, but of course I never got around to it. This makes it easier.

I also today decided to take the plunge and install IE7 RC on my machine. This isn't all that big of a deal, as I only use IE for Windows Update now, but I thought I would check it out. To be fair, I also downloaded Firefox 2.0 beta, and plan to install that also. I know, I usually just want my software to work, and don't want to be futzing with it. Oh well, I was just on a kick today I guess. I'll have to post my thoughts on the two browsers after I use them a bit.

The Hawks won today. I hope to repeat that statement many times through January.


Oh man. The spellchecking on Blogger kicks butt now. About time.

Testing. I'm in beta, watch out!

I mostly despise computers. Really, I do. I like using them as tools, I do it all day long for work, and often far too much at home. However, I don't actually like mucking around with them anymore.

Case in point, I started reinstalling my main machine last night. Too many years, too many odd things, have made it start to act funny. Plus, I wanted to upgrade a drive in it anyway. Man, I hate reinstalling.

However, despite all that, sometimes I like trying out new, silly software. Today's silly software is a piece of blogging software by none other than Microsoft. I really should find out some day how some of these little side projects actually get released as a Microsoft product. I know how hard it is for me to get a company product released, I'm not sure how they let these slip through.

Anyway, just announced today is a beta of something they call Windows Live Writer. It is of course aimed at their new Live site. However, they have nicely included support for other blogs. Not just for posting either, using the crappy Blogger API they were actually able to pull down my previous posts, and my visual style.

Now, rather than using the horrendous Blogger web interface (Google, you're sleeping at the wheel, yo), I can use a familiar interface. Supposedly this may be a small foreshadowing of the Blog support to be included in Word 2007. I really don't care, I just hope it doesn't have the standard Word annoyances, thus far it hasn't.

Oh, did I mention that now the spell check uses your system dictionary, so all that stuff you have taught it in Word or Outlook is still there. Nice. Plus it actually saves drafts for me, rather than eating them.

Well, if you are reading this, I believe this program has accomplished all that I wanted from it. I'm pleased.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the app. Also, here is a review that has already been written, linked from UneasySilence.

...and a screenshot for Ryan: